Santorum
New Jesse Helms
365Gay.com,
April 21, 2003
By Paul Johnson, Washington Bureau Chief
Washington, D.C.—Jesse Helms may
have left the US Senate but his place as America’s most homophobic
legislator has been captured by Rick Santorum. The Pennsylvania Republican,
the GOP’s third ranking member in the Senate, says every decision he makes
is based only on one guiding principle: what is best for the American family.
But, Santorum’s definition of family clearly does not
include gays and lesbians.
Two-parent opposite sex families, says Santorum, are
good. Requiring people to work is good. So is banning late-term abortions and
giving religion a greater role in government. Traditional welfare, on the
other hand, hurts the family. Homosexuality, feminism, liberalism all
undermine the family. Even parts of the Constitution can harm the family, he
says.
Especially when the Constitution supports gays. Right
now, the 44 year old is fuming over the a Supreme Court challenge to Texas’
anti-sodomy law.
“If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to
consensual (gay) sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you
have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right
to adultery. You have the right to anything,” he says
“All of those things are antithetical to a healthy,
stable, traditional family,” Santorum said. “And that’s sort of where we
are in today’s world, unfortunately. It all comes from, I would argue, this
right to privacy that doesn’t exist, in my opinion, in the United States
Constitution.”
Santorum who calls himself “a compassionate
conservative” has sailed up the ranks of the Senate Republican leadership
with the help of the far right wing of the GOP. Should Senate Majority Leader
Bill Frist, R-Tenn., retire in 2006, Santorum says he will seek the post.
“Sen. Santorum’s remarks are deeply hurtful and play
on deep-seated fears that fly in the face of scientific evidence, common
sense, and basic decency. Clearly, there is no compassion in his
conservatism,” said Human Rights Campaign Political Director Winnie
Stachelberg.
“Discriminatory remarks like this fuel prejudice that
can lead to violence and other harms against the gay community. HRC is calling
on Republican leaders to take quick and decisive action to repudiate Sen.
Santorum’s remarks.”
Other groups condemning Santorum’s remarks were the
Center for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights, the Pennsylvania Log Cabin
Republicans, OutFront, and the Pennsylvania Gender Rights Coalition.
In the Senate, Santorum has focused largely on social
issues that are the core of Bush’s “compassionate conservative” campaign
platform. He successfully pushed legislation banning late-term abortions as
well as a bill to give tax breaks for donations to religious-based charities.
He has hired welfare recipients in his district offices, where he also staffs
community affairs liaisons specifically tasked to help faith-based
organizations get funding.
“The more I got involved [in politics], it really did
open my eyes to how the left had destroyed so much,” Santorum said.
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